On Thursday, December 12, 2024, 34 Hill School students participated in the DECA District 8 competition at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in King of Prussia, Pa. DECA is a national organization, founded in 1946, that supports business programs in schools nationwide, and in Canada, and in thousands of schools is co-curricular with their business programs. The Hill School joined DECA in 2011 and has had good success at local, state, and national levels since then. This year, 22 Hill School students qualified for the State Career Development Conference, which will be held in Hershey, Pa., from February 19 – 21, 2025.

12 Hill students participated in four Principles events and received the following awards:

• First Place Trophy: Elva Cheng ’26 (Principles of Business Management and Administration)
• Second Place Trophies: Seoyun Hwang ’27 (Principles of Hospitality and Tourism) and Sunay Rohatgi ’27 (Principles of Finance)
• Fourth Place Medallions: Scarlett Katz ’26 (Principles of Business Management and Administration) and Ryan McClellan ’26 (Principles of Marketing)
• Fifth Place Medallions: Lily Mauro ’27 (Principles of Hospitality and Tourism) and Grady Ziegler ’26 (Principles of Marketing)
• Seventh Place Medallion: Jill Patel ’27 (Principles of Hospitality and Tourism)

Additionally, Elva Cheng ’26 won the double medallion for both High Test and High Role Play, and Sunay Rohatgi ’27 won the Highest Role Play Score.

Six students participated in Individual events, and received the following awards (all of which qualified for States):

• First Place Trophies: Josh Dickey ’26 (Personal Finance Literacy) and Ayaan Rege ’26 (Marketing and Communications)
• Second Place Trophies: Adam Yao ’26 (Food Marketing Services) and Addison Beckey '26 (Human Resources Management)
• Third Place Trophy: Erin Lee ’26 (Entrepreneurship)
• Fourth Place Medallion: Shreya Korithiwada ’26 (Entrepreneurship)

Josh Dickey ’26 received two medallions for achieving both the highest test scores and the highest role play scores; Erin Lee ’26 and Adam Yao ’26 also had the highest test scores in their events.               

16 students (eight teams of two) participated in the Team and received the following awards:

• Third Place Trophy: Arkadi Bindar ’26 & Anc Clarkson ’26 (Buying and Merchandising), as well as the Highest Test Score, and Lili Rankin ’25 & Wynnetka Magpantay '25 (Business Law and Ethics)
• Sixth Place Medallion: Ryan Sung ’27 and Ben Lee ’27 (Marketing Management)
• Seventh Place Medallion: James Gong '26 and Ford Tufankjian ’26 (Business Law and Ethics)